Verbal Rubbish

As the title screen shows, Triptych is an eroge made by ALcot in 2006 and popular opinion claims it to be THE eroge for gothic lolita fanatics. Well they sure got that one right.

This title took me almost three months to complete and I am glad that I finally finished it. Even so, it was worth playing until the end and I have enjoyed it thoroughly including my claimed waifu Setsuna.

The story is about an undercover detective named Nayuta. Under the orders of a correspondent he has never seen nor heard named Kei, he is to investigate a suspicious ceremony which will take place inside a school tower that is related to the recent disappearances in town. When he reaches there, he meets a mysterious girl named Maya whom he had never met before yet she knows about him. Little does Nayuta realize that this remotely harmless encounter will tip him into a world filled with mystery, suspense, and heartache as he unravels the origin of the killings, only to find something more profound and horrifying than he could ever dream of. And his final choice will determine his own fate as well as the things he holds most dear.

All right, I’m making this sound like some freakish, horror eroge and in a way it is. I don’t think it will make anyone scream in terror, but the game’s atmosphere can tingle the spine. Instead of suddenly throwing out shocking images in front of your face, it pulls out a kind of unease with it’s haunting narrative and music. I’d say this eroge borders more as a suspenseful mystery, answering questions but leaving more behind. This game does not have  routes. Instead, the plot consists of three intersecting arcs focusing on each heroine and only by playing through all of them will a player finally understand the entire story.

As usual not only will I write a bishoujo summary, I will delve deeper into each route and will give my own thoughts in spoiler tags. I will try to keep spoilers at a minimum but I cannot say the same for my waifu the one named Setsuna. Just revealing a picture of her already spoils a great deal of Triptych’s story so take this as a fair warning. For this reason, I have tagged her entire profile.

Maya (CV: Taguchi Hiroko) is the mysterious girl Nayuta meets in his investigation. Despite her looks, she is the school director and currently lives in the tall, central tower. Maya does not speak much and appears disappointed when Nayuta did not recognize her, but she still invites him inside and treats him with familiarity. She loves stuffed dolls and owns two, a red cat she named Jajasu and a baby angel, Marione.

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Miu (CV: Ichimura Oma/Miru) is a polite, dojikko ojousama. Because of her poor condition, she is not allowed to go outside very often except for school and that makes her very innocent of the world around her. When Nayuta first meets her, she sneaked away from the eyes of her two overprotective guardians, a maid named Lei (CV: Kana Fumizuki) and a bodyguard named Hanon (CV: Hikaru Isshiki). Needless to say, they are very suspicious of him and try to keep him away from Miu. Despite their efforts, Nayuta continues to visit and take her outside to have fun, deepening her attraction of his outgoing nature and eventually falling in love with him.

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The main conflict in this arc is Hanon and Lei’s disapproval of Nayuta and Miu’s relationship. They see him as a dangerous individual who only attracts trouble and in the end will hurt Miu. It does not help his image when Hanon encounters Nayuta in the night while investigating a number of murders. Nayuta also has personal misgivings toward the pair as he discovers circumstantial evidence connecting them to the murder victims. As the number of victims exponentially increase, tensions rise between Nayuta, Miu, Hanon, and Lei and only after several plot twists and startling revelations will the undercover detective finally reach the truth.

I found this arc to be quite entertaining partly because of Miu’s innocent, dojikko antics and rabu-rabu relationship with Nayuta in the first-half, and the edgy, nerve-racking drama in the second, revealing the secrets behind Miu’s sickness and her guardian’s true roles. Miu is really cute and I can’t help smiling with amusement whenever she becomes flustered from Nayuta’s teasing, or when she helplessly hits her head in the library and pouts adorably. I can also feel Nayuta’s agitation with not only Hanon and Lei’s divine interventions whenever they think he is becoming too intimate with her. But what really made Miu’s arc awesome for me was the climactic confrontation in the final chapter as one plot twist came after another, blowing up into a satisfying conclusion.

Karen (CV: Sayaka Aoki) is the twin pig-tailed, blonde tsundere of the bunch and she is a firecracker. Unlike Miu’s first meeting, Karen accuses Nayuta of being a sukebe for looking at her underwear after colliding into each other by accident. His response of how her panties won’t arouse anybody earned him a roundhouse kick and I don’t mind his suffering. He meets her again in the bar roughing up with some mean-looking thugs. After a failed attempt with his nonexistent diplomatic skills and a violent scuffle later, he pulls Karen to safety. Nayuta learns that Karen lives in a church filled with orphans and lately several of them went missing, almost as if they disappeared into thin air. Nayuta has a hunch that a greedy landowner holds the explanation. Because Nayuta told her he is a detective, she forces him to take her with him in his investigations. There are two orphan girls Karen is especially fond of named Natsuki (CV: Aoi Kisaragi) and Riona (CV: Suzune Kusunoki) and she shows more of her motherly side in their company.

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Setsuna:

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Triptych has put quite a bit of time in it’s visual presentation and it shows. The style of the text, buttons, menu screens, symbols, and fonts gives it a genuine, Victorian feel. The outfits on the three main heroines are a delight to look at, each designed in articulate detail. Maya’s and Miu’s clothes wear traditional, extravagant dresses with lace, frills and ribbons while Karen’s are more “punkish” with huge, glitzy armbands and chains. Also worth noting are the wide amount of background images used during Nayuta’s monologue or in special story scenes. Some of these include blood splotches, clear seawater, kaleidoscopic glass and glowing balls of light.

In regard to the ero-scenes, there are plenty of it and they include not only the major heroines, but the supporting characters too. Each character can have around three to four ero-scenes with three main illustrations and multitude variations. Almost all of them are consensual one-on-ones except for an optional raep scene of Karen and one of a threesome with Karen and Miu.

ALcot also invested a nice chunk of money in the sound department. Many of the musical tracks prominently use the piano and it is well matched for each scene whether it be a bright school day, journeying in a damp alleyway, street-fighting or soft lovemaking. My favorite piece has to be “Open the Psychadelic Door.” Each rendition adds new layers of instrumentation, making me feel like I was unraveling new secrets as I progressed through each story arc. The sound effects are also very natural and realistic . The opening of a door, jumps in the whistling air, the sound of a pants zipper and creaks on the bed mattress sound real and they probably are.

Now that I’m done praising it, I’ll get right down to the qualms I have on this game. While the story is engaging at times, it can also feel like a drag. I understand that Nayuta is a detective but even my patience can reach a limit when he mulls over the obvious over and over again. There are other times when the dialogue can be unimaginative and dry. I also blame that on Nayuta since he is more fond of using aizuchi than other eroge protagonists. The transitions of some of the ero-scenes feel out of place doesn’t make any sense. Lastly, some of the parts can be fleshed out more such as the origins of the “Void” and Nayuta’s partner, Kei. Even though it can get a bit slow at times, the resulting climax of each arc was worth the wait and the final arc kept me going all the way ’till the end.

It was a long journey no thanks to my procrastination, but Triptych was an enjoyable ride and I recommend it to anyone who wants to enjoy a good, dark mystery story with a healthy portion of light-hearted moments and ero. I’ll only discourage this title for those who absolutely loathe gothic loli bishoujos.

M3rrymutilator: “AND IF ANY OF YOU ARE, I’LL FEED YOU YOUR OWN INTESTINES!”

Oh Setsuna my glorious waifu! My love for you knows no bounds!

Tags: Triptych